Teacher jailed over sex with student

A teacher at an eastern suburbs school has been jailed for having sex with a 15-year-old student in his care.

Mark Hayes, of Templestowe was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, with a further six months suspended for two years, after being found guilty of sexual penetration of a child under 16.

In sentencing Hayes, 39, Judge Jennifer Coate said: “What you have done shakes the foundation of our system of teaching young people.

“Lack of consent is not a defence to the offence.”

Even though it was the one offence, it took pre-planning of a number of weeks and subterfuge, Ms Coate said.

According to police, the relationship between Hayes and the girl grew from a simple teacher-student relationship to one involving exchanges of telephone calls, emails and text messages.

The girl said they eventually exchanged sexual text messages, mostly in the evenings.

They agreed to have sex on November 7 last year after Hayes, a legal affairs and commerce teacher, phoned in sick from work. The girl was dropped near the school, where she changed from her uniform, and Hayes picked her up at a local park.

Before having sex, each agreed that it was wrong and if it was revealed Hayes would be stood down and charged.

She told police that he later drove her back to school. The girl said: “I messaged him to tell him that I got back to school safely and then I went to lunch recess.”

She told a school friend about having sex, who, with another girl, reported the details the next day to another teacher.

Teacher pleads guilty to sex with schoolgirl

WHEN teacher Mark Andrew Hayes answered a call at lunchtime to attend the principal’s office, he was met by two detectives and his boss.

“We’re here to speak to you about a relationship with one of your students,” Detective Sergeant Scott Poynder told Hayes, then 38, a teacher with 16 years’ experience.

The two officers were at the outer-eastern Melbourne secondary college for more than two hours on November 9 last year with a colleague from a sexual offences and child abuse unit.

They had already spoken with a 15-year-old female student, whom police would later learn Hayes called his “sexy, horny schoolgirl”.

Sergeant Poynder told Hayes he was under arrest for an offence of sexual penetration of a child under 16, read him his rights and asked him to leave with them for the police station.

“I can’t believe this,” Hayes said. “I’m not sure what to say at the moment. I understand what you are saying. My head’s spinning and I feel quite faint.”

Sergeant Poynder noticed that Hayes was visibly shaken and he saw the “colour drain from his face and he appeared very pale”.

Hayes sat in a chair, had a drink of water and then told the principal: “I’m sorry.”

The details of Hayes’ arrest and his crime were revealed yesterday when he pleaded guilty in Melbourne Magistrates Court to a charge of sexual penetration of a person under 16 who was under his care, supervision and authority.

In a summary of the evidence, Hayes and the girl had sex two days before his arrest in a spare bedroom at a house he shared with his pregnant de facto wife — also a teacher at the school.

According to police, the relationship between Hayes and the girl grew from a simple teacher-student relationship to one involving exchanges of telephone calls, emails and text messages.

In her statement, the girl said they gradually talked about personal matters. “We were getting to know each other more as friends … I appreciated his concern for me … He was easy to talk to.”

The girl said they eventually exchanged sexual text messages mostly in evenings.

The pair agreed to have sex on November 7 after Hayes phoned in sick from work. The girl was dropped near the school, where she changed from her uniform, and Hayes picked her up at a local park.

Before having sex, each agreed that it was wrong and if it was revealed Hayes would be stood down and charged.

She told police that he later drove her back to school.

The girl said: “I messaged him to tell him that I got back to school safely and then I went to lunch recess.

“He messaged me later on that night to see if I was OK and to ask me if anyone was asking me questions about why I wasn’t at school all day.

“I told him everything was OK.”

But she had told a school friend about it, who, with another girl, reported the details the next day to another teacher.

Defence barrister Frank Gucciardo yesterday told the court that the content and context of the text messages would be challenged at Hayes’ plea hearing in the County Court in October.

TEXT PEST

■Just dealin wit shitty skool crap. Oh well if I can c u smile it will get betta.